Capt Bob LeMay

No secret at all - in fact I'm using feathers - that most experienced tyers would reject out of hand...  This particular fly is one of a series from the late eighties, done up in five different colors - Drew Chicone featured a red and grizzly one in his recent book BELIZE FLIES that just came out last year and I did a step by step for him that shows the exact tying sequence for anyone interested.  I thought that he did a great job of explaining in detail the eleven patterns for Belize...

At any rate,  the collar is done with three wide, webby saddle hackles - that are tied in by the butt ends as a unit - then palmered forward.  What looks like maribou or hen saddles is actually the fluff at the butt end of the saddles that is left in place and not stripped away to add bulk and movement when in use....  You have to look at the stem on each saddle and only use that part of the butt end that has a thin enough diameter to be able to wrap around a hook without cracking, splitting, or breaking away.  The saddles (and the neck hackles that make up the tail) are the cheapest dyed or natural strung chicken feathers that come from China.... Wide, webby, and not worth much to most freshwater tyers - they're the sort of goods you might use for a feather duster (back when they were still in use...).  I still have a great supply since I always bought them - by the pound...  Here's a pic or two of the various colors and materials that the Big Eye tarpon flies came in.  I'm still drawing royalties on them with Umpqua... 

Here are the Green & Grizz, the Sands (white, yellow and grizzly) ,  and the Orange Grizz all are mounted on my improvised drying sticks... The head finish on the original bugs was FlexCoat, a rodbuilder's finish.  After application the flies needed to rotate for two hours until the finish set up properly... Since I've been buildign rods myself for many years using FlexCoat was a simple step in the production process... 

Here's the Sand Devil,  variation #4 in the series - it's been the most popular of all - and still in demand in some quarters... 

This entire bug is done up with red chinchilla feathers, neck hackles for the tail and saddles for the collar... Note that the fluff on the base of each saddle is a different color than the rest of the feather, making an interesting feature in the finished pattern...  The one remaining variation, the brown and grizzly has brown collar and grizzly tail  (not shown).

I'd say that johnnyquahog came closest in his guess since the saddles I use for this pattern are very close to being schlappen...  By the way the grizzly looking tail feathers (and the grizzly mentioned in collars for some of these patterns) - aren't grizzly at all - they're called chinchilla in the trade (or a times simply called variant...) that's a very good grizzly substitute in some cases.... - including the dyed orange collar mentioned in the original query... 

It’s 3:30 in the morning here and I’m booked to fish today so I’ll post the info tonight if possible… Thanks for your interest 

I've only lost one rod in my nearly 30 years as a guide... Here's the (actually true...) story.. The backcountry of the Everglades where I take most  of my anglers has numerous rivers that drain the brackish interior out to the coast and saltwaters... These rivers are wild mangrove jungle scenes and usually eight to twelve feet deep with strong currents when the tide is strong.  With dark waters we can, at times fish right on top of bottom fish that will hammer a live or dead bait if presented properly.  My angler that day was a big fellow (college football tackle size ...) and he got taken to the cleaners with the first two baits so I set him up a third time, and he dropped down into the same spot and was immediately hit by something a lot bigger than the first two bites.. in fact it was so big and so quick that it actually snatched  my angler out of my skiff before I could reach him... When he went overboard he held onto my poling tower and i was able to pull him back aboard - but he'd let go of the rod  -so that was that... We joked later on that next time he fished with me he'd have to wear a tether - but to this day I'm very careful where i allow my anglers to stand on my skiff.... and the following week I had to make another heavy rod... If there'd been a camera recording that incident the video would have gone viral i'm sure - there are fish (and other things) in the dark waters of the 'glades that once or twice were definitely bigger than my 17' skiff.  No, not a place for a casual swim at all.... 

As a saltwater type - my leaders are all hand tied (and since I'm from the stone age - a bit old fashioned).  For anyone hitting the salt for the first time - here's the first step - a permanent butt section connected to the end of the fly with a nail knot ( two nail knots in a row if connecting to a full Intermediate fly line - one won't work...).

I prefer monofilament for this portion of any saltwater fly leader (and Ande Premium is always my first choice if available).  Each butt section ends in a surgeon's loop big enough to pass any popping bug through and here's the routine...

7wt... 3.5 feet of 30lb mono

8wt ...4 feet of 40lb 

9wt... 4.5 feet of 40lb 

10wt.. 5 feet of 50lb 

11wt.. 5.5 feet of 50lb

12wt... 6 feet of 60lb

I'll forego the final "quick change portion of my leader setups for now... but here's a teaser.. 

I tie up pairs of leaders, joined by a common bite tippet, then loaded loop to loop on spools by size... When needed you pull off a leader pair, clip the bite tippet in half and have a ready made class tippet with shock (or bite tippet) ready to  secure to your butt section and ready for whatever fly... 

Always a possibility that the thief - is in-house as well… As you can guess,  I’ll never be allowed on any jury…

Most likely it was chopped up and sold for scrap (and the scrap value of the metal was probably a good bit of money...).  Down here in paradise, years ago during the crack cocaine troubles, thieves were even taking aluminum lamp poles along busy urban freeways to sell for scrap.  One guy I knew back then reported that he caught a crack cocaine zombie actually trying to remove one of the aluminum storm shutters off of his house - while he was at home... Glad I'm years out of police work - the desperation of addicts will be hard for anyone to come face to face with in that line of work (understatement...).

I smoked from age 16 to age 23..before quitting cold turkey.   To this day I can't tell you how I was able to do it but I was single back then.  Best thing I ever did looking back on it.  For me - that was 52 years ago now...  Anyone struggling with that habit has my sympathy.  By the way,  when I was in the service a carton of smokes was around $1.75...  You'd think the tobacco industry was trying to get all of us hooked.

On the issue of tying threads - currently I'm struggling with supply issues...  My wholesaler reports that shipments from Danville have been a bit uneven... Twice now I've ordered a particular color and been told that my wholesaler doesn't have it since Danville hasn't produced it and they have no idea if and when it will be included in their ordinary course of business.  Guess I'll be using Uni instead - still in that large 210 denier size and praying it will come close to the actual color I've been using forever... 

Outstanding display... Where I am most days in the interior of the Everglades - the reds rarely tail at all - we usually spot them cruising, mudding, or feeding along very shallow shorelines with no grass at all... All our tailers are down in Florida Bay just south of the areas we fish most days...

Poopdeck...  thanks for your info about in-line singles.... Very interesting -and something to consider since my anglers toss lures as well as flies at tarpon... My normal routine with plugs for big tarpon is to change out the rear hook for one - two sizes larger (and in the 4x strong category..).  We do get solid hook-ups with the larger treble hooks -but, unless the plug is of small size (relatively...) big tarpon are still able to toss the lure entirely too often. Hook a big tarpon on the fly and it has a hard time tossing the hook on it's jumps - instead they break my anglers off if they're not quick to "bow to the king...".

Snook do behave a bit like largemouth bass in that they will attack anything that comes near (and we use many of the same tactics, lures and flies for them) - when they're  hungry... After that things change since they're very quick once hooked and will streak towards the nearest cover and stitch you up before you even realize you're on one... The harvest of them is strictly controlled since they're also great table fare... In my area, along the coast if you hook one - sharks are always a problem since they like to eat them as well.. 

That bit about homo sapiens is true wherever you go in this world, unfortunately,  in my experience.  Of course as a retired cop my point of view is a bit skewed but I came to the belief years ago that - it's who we are as a species... All possibilities, angel to demon are contained within each of us from my experience..  Any time we get compared to monkeys - the monkeys ought to feel insulted...

If I lived up north I wouldn't be much of a fisherman at all - until it warmed up a bit... Instead I'd take up poker playing, pool shooting, visiting other fellow's wives - nothing dangerous at all... All of that, of course,  was many years ago.  Nowadays - it's just a memory... 

In my neighborhood - we have fish that will eat whatever fish you've hooked.... just nothing like the 'glades...

Here's a true story... in a place called the Little Shark River one day my anglers caught and released a small great hammerhead (about six feet long, and skinny, maybe 50-60 lbs... at full growth a great hammer may be as much as twenty feet long...).  It was in good order and swam off - no problem.  When that small guy was about 200 feet away from my skiff - it got blown up with an enormous explosion... and whatever monster had him in it's jaws swam by us with that little hammerhead sticking straight up in the air about three feet... My anglers got really excited and asked what was that...  I replied a really, really big shark... When they asked what kind my only reply was large and hungry....  very hungry.  

No, the areas we fish in are not suitable for swimming since the waters are dark and you just don't see a big animal headed your way until it shows itself (which only happens now and then...).

Have to toot my horn a second time... this past weekend the waters in the interior of the Everglades out of Flamingo... were as high as 77 degrees.  If the weather stays mild in a week or two we'll begin seeing the big tarpon... Whitewater Bay is the first place the big girls show up down here - well before they show up down in the Keys each year... Just nothing like the 'glades.  In winter the interior waters in places like Whitewater Bay are just warmer than any shallow waters elsewhere and that warmth is a magnet for big tarpon every winter...

Will post a report with photos under "non-fly fishing" since I didn't have any fly anglers this weekend... 

Over the years, on more than one occasion... Here's what I've recommended to my anglers when they have an outstanding catch they want to memorialize... I hand them the fly to clean up and preserve as well as my best photo of the event - then encourage them to do a shadow box display - with both the photo, and any info they want to record - as well as the fly (with leader if desired...) mounted under (or over) the photo.  Done properly it makes a GREAT display... 

When I started working on boats, more than fifty years ago... I was working as a mate on boats sailing out of Miami  Beach (Haulover and Castaways docks) and green as grass (understatement).  This was years before I took up guiding out of a small skiff and in that time we killed every fish we could and sent as many of them as possible to the taxidermist for mounting that "trophy".  I'm very glad that world is long gone and nowadays most anglers prefer catch and release if they're not keeping a few fish for the table... 

A very old thread... had the fun of re-reading what I wrote back in 2012 - and wouldn't change a word... Hope someone somewhere can find a use for that part of the calftail... I call them kiptails since my earliest mentors (one of them a fishing partner of Joe Brooks...) always called them that...  The good news for all of us is that as long as there's still a demand for veal.. we'll never run out of calf tails.

Can't resist... when everyone up north is tying flies, repairing gear (or visiting lady friends...) all that's needed to find great fishing is a plane ticket down to south Florida (among other similar destinations...).  We'll be jumping small tarpon tonight on a falling tide between Miami and Miami Beach if all goes well.  One of my anglers will use light spinning gear and lures - the other an 8 or 9wt rod with simple white flies...   Those "small tarpon" will be between 20 and 40lbs - all you can stand with a 9wt - and even more fun with  the 8wt...  

For Heff... if there's the slightest moisture in the area you're applying CA glue to... you'll get a chalky result.. I never see it on any of the patterns I'm tying once I learned about how it reacts to any moisture.  As an addendum water will kill any CA glue that's still in liguid form.  That's why, when I'm tying in bulk, using the stuff I keep a  tiny bowl with water close by.   Any glue on my fingertips is killed dead by just dunking them in water before the glue sets up (then a bit of scrubbing will remove any white residue later after my tying session..). 

I prefer the original thin Krazy Glue that comes in a tube (and long ago learned not to buy it in bulk since a year or two down the road I'd find new tubes - that had already kicked off and were useless as a result.  I used to teach my fly tying students to carefully squeeze out a tiny drop - then apply it where needed since it's too easy to apply too much if you place the tube on your work - then give it a squeeze.  I use the stuff for both cementing during the tying process and as  a sealant / head cement alternative on the flies I tie and also on the thread wraps when I'm generating bucktail jigs in quantity... Here's a photo of how I employ it as a sealant on the thread heads of most saltwater patterns.... 

like a tiny paintbrush....

We were taught in the saltwater world - all those years ago, to use our strong hands for working big fish on fly (which pretty much meant reels with right hand drives...).  The illustration of that principle was simple - if handed a brand new large capacity reel and a bulk spool of backing - which hand would you prefer to do that chore, winding 200, 300 yards or more of backing onto that nice, new,  high end reel?    As the years passed and more and more fly anglers who started out in freshwater migrated over to the saltwater side of things - most of them had learned early on to use their "weak hand" for reel winding.  As a result came the rise and pretty much dominance of reels with left hand drives  - so those of us still preferring a right hand reel became the minority, mostly, and "old school " as well...   Early big game fly reels were often only offered in right hand drive models (mostly), like Fin Nor, Billy Pate, etc.  When manufacturing those reels early outfits made available kits that would allow an owner or shop to convert right hand to left hand drives - but that was followed by much better designs that were essentially ambi-dextrous - allowing a few simple adjustments that would allow anyone to convert from right to left or left to right without needing any additional parts at all... They're pretty much the rule today in every up-scale big game fly reel (as well as all of their smaller models.  Some manufacturers require an owner to send the reel to them for a conversion - but most simply need a few parts re-arranged to convert from one side to the other....

Me... as a fishing guide... long ago realized it would be very handy to have two reels for each rod size -one that winds right, the other winds left handed - and if I know in advance an angler's preference that's how the gear will be set up for that trip... Like I said - very handy (but if I ever quit guiding I'll have more than a few left handed reels to sell off...).

In the past when I was working fly and general fishing shows and needed a quick display I've used two different methods.  The first is the simplest - set the hook point of each fly into the driftwood itself - then remove it and add a very tiny drop of thin super glue to the tiny hole the hook left - and replace the fly into that same hole.  The super glue will hold it in place just fine - yet the fly is easily removed when the display is no longer needed....  Another method works well for reverse tied flies (meant to fish hookpoint up instead of down...).  Take a thin piece of styrofoam and insert half a toothpick from the bottom so that the point of the toothpick is sticking up about a half inch then simply place the eye of that reverse tied fly onto the toothpick for a great display (that can actually allow a customer to pick up the fly to be able to examine it any time they want - then it's placed back onto that tooth pick afterwards. You can get the same effect on driftwood by drilling a matching diameter hole into  the driftwood that will allow you to mount a fly onto that shortened toothpick point afterwards wherever you want it.  The toothpick mount works quite well for bendback and clouser style patterns in my world....

One other option is to set up some jig and fly rigs for him..... Essentially you take a double length of leader material, joining it to the rod's line with either a loop to loop connection or a direct splice with the two "legs" uneven - one longer than the other... On the short leg you're using a bucktail jig or a leadhead with plastic tail (acts as your casting weight) - on the longer leg you secure a minnow type fly.  In use the two legs compliment each other the bucktail jig sinking first to near bottom then the entire rig worked slowly, just off the bottom with the fly riding well above the bottom.  In use one or the other hook will draw strikes at different times and occasionally you'll end up with double headers...

I've used similar rigs in both fresh and saltwaters with light spinning gear and good results... 

Down here in paradise (south florida) any time I see a "gangster ride" like the one in photo that's jacked up so high in the front... I make certain assumptions about the character of anyone inside...  I'll be the first to admit that as a retired cop I'm just a tad biased of course.  In my area, though,  that's generally not a bad assumption - and that goes double for groups of young kids on souped up homemade mini-scooters.  Recent news events up north show exactly what I'm referring to while the news media hasn't a clue that those "kids on scooters" are actually young bad guys -particularly in groups....